Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews spent Sunday publicly beefing over whether or not students should be sent back to school. That suddenly stopped when a teacher at a Melbourne primary school tested positive for COVID-19.
It all started when Tehan went on the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday morning, where he singled out the Victorian Premier for being the only state leader without a plan to send students back into physical classrooms any time soon.
Tehan has since withdrawn his comments, saying he was mainly thinking about students who would get left behind during the school closures – particularly, poor, remote and Indigenous students, he said.
“It was those examples I was thinking of this morning during my interview on Insiders when I expressed my personal frustration that more schools weren’t starting more in-class learning in my home state,” he said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.
“It was this frustration that led me to overstep the mark in questioning Premier Andrews’ leadership on this matter and I withdraw.”
.@DanTehanWannon calls out @DanielAndrewsMP for not having a plan to re-open schools.
“We have one Premier in particular who is jeopardising the national consensus on this.”#Auspol #Insiders pic.twitter.com/7PvIjGw244
— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) May 2, 2020
Victorian schools switched to online learning in March. Meanwhile, NSW and other states are planning on easing students back into physical classrooms.
Because of this situation, Tehan accused Andrews of taking a “sledgehammer” to the state’s education system.
While Andrews himself refused to reply, the state Education Minister James Merlino Tweeted his support for the Premier.
“The federal government should spend less time playing politics and discrediting the amazing work our teachers, staff and parents are doing during this challenging time,” he wrote.
An hour after the Insiders interview, news broke that a teacher at Meadowglen Primary School in the Melbourne suburb of Epping had tested positive to COVID-19, and that the school would be closed until Wednesday.
unfortunate pic.twitter.com/nhc3gAqXIK
— Tiger Webb (@tfswebb) May 3, 2020
That was when Tehan was prompted to take back what he said earlier.
The whole day ended up a big fucken mess, with way too many pollies and states’ Chief Health Officers from around the country each putting in their own two cents.
However, virtually all agreed that fighting between the federal and state governments is the last thing anyone needs at the moment.
